Keep our lives free of US government

I couldn’t agree more with Jack Hertel’s letter on the FDA (Reader Input, Dec. 29). Four years of medical school followed by three to five years of residency then several more for a research Ph.D., doesn’t make the FDA any smarter than the rest of us. The good old days with herbs, grasses and weeds were fine — less expense and healthier, too. We should be free to help each other out in life. That’s what made America great.
Why should anyone tell me I can’t give Thalidomide to my neighbor for her morning sickness or apricot seeds to a friend who has cancer? The Thalidomide the FDA tested came from an impure source and the apricot seeds came from the wrong farm in Baja.
If my neighbor needs help to have a shapelier backside by injecting cement and special orange beeswax, that’s between us and no one else.
Just get the best cement. Copper bracelets, a mattress pad of cow magnets or a machine to balance out the electrical currents in the body is all we need. Occasionally it is good to go out into the pasture and pick fresh clover or miner’s lettuce, but stay at least three feet from the cow pies.
Twenty years ago an auto accident sent me to the hospital for nine weeks.
For four, I was hooked up to machines and IVs to keep me alive and relaxed — so they say. I’d have preferred my mother take me home and given me CPR for the duration. I would have been fine and at a lot less expense. The silly doctor says I’m fine now. What does he know?
I’m with you, tea party. Keep America strong! Government, get out of our lives!
Ron Rothe, Newcastle